


12/25/1986

by GretchenSinister



Series: The Doors of Perception and Bonus Material [3]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:35:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22062661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "So you know this promotional artwork? http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mem7r3lQiw1qhttpto1_500.jpgReally it just looks like a badass family photo, right? Well, I’d like a fic where they’re trying to take one, but it just doesn’t seem to work. Bunny and Jack bickering, Sandy falling asleep, Toth not keeping still enough… all sorts of problems.Just some cute and fluffy familytimes with the guardians, please!"Because I’m self-indulgent: another Christmas in The Doors of Perception-verse. 1986, to be exact.Every year they take a photo on North’s steps. Sandy’s got a habit that worries Bunny in these photos, and North helps him break it this year.
Relationships: Jack Frost/Toothiana (Guardians of Childhood), Pitch Black/Sanderson Mansnoozie
Series: The Doors of Perception and Bonus Material [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1587967
Comments: 3
Kudos: 11
Collections: Blacksand Short Fics, Rainbow Snowcone Short Fics





	12/25/1986

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 9/25/2013.

12/25/86  
  
“Tasha!” Jack jumps in front of his daughter and places his hands firmly on her shoulders. “We’re going to take the picture now, and so I’m going to need you to stand still. Just for a little bit.” He cups her cheeks with his hands and looks into her eyes as seriously as he can, which isn’t very. To see her, so alive, always makes him want to laugh for joy. Every memory he makes with her in it helps bury the others—the others with the heat, and the bullets, and the hiding in a muddy lake in the jungle while people all around him bled and died for a cause he’s almost certain none of them really understood, when all he had of Tooth were memories of two glorious summers.  
  
“Da-ad! Your hands are fuh-reezing!”  
  
He lets her go. “Sorry peanut. Cold hands warm heart. But will you hold still? Otherwise you’re going to look like a ghost in the picture.”  
  
Her eyes light up. “That would be cool! Wait! Wait! I’ll hold still if I can hold Resa!”  
  
Jack glances up at Tooth, who looks warily at him, their energetic five-year-old, and finally Resa, almost exactly three months old now.  
  
“Yes…” she says, “but let’s all sit together, okay?”   
  
As they settle onto the steps in front of North’s house, North fiddles with the camera.  
  
“Are you sure you should be doing that?” Bunny asks, as North narrows his eyes and pushes against a small lever with more force than seems wise.  
  
“Of course! Come now, Bunny, when have I ever _broken_ anything mechanical? After all, Sleigh is still running.”  
  
“That old VW is either illegal or a deathtrap, no matter how many coats of candy-apple red you paint it, and you know it.”  
  
North just laughs. Something clicks in the camera and he settles it onto the tripod, exclaiming triumphantly. “There! You see! Is fine. Now, Bunny, more important, should we be expecting, ah, anyone else today?”  
  
Bunny rolls his eyes. “North, when I find someone I want to stand next to on the steps, I’ll bring them. I’ve just gotta, you know, be sure they’ll stay. This is important. And you know _that_ , too.”  
  
North nods. “I just feel there should be more of us. It is too bad Jamie and Sophie live so far away.”  
  
“Yeah. Too bad. But they were here last year. Probably be here next year.” He bites his thumbnail and looks over at Sandy, who’s leaning against the railing with a faraway look in his eyes and a small smile that doesn’t seem to have much to do with Christmas.  
  
“I know what you are thinking,” North says. “And—”  
  
“He hopes for a miracle every year, North. Can’t you tell? I can. God. Even after so long.”  
  
“Jack came back,” North says quietly, adjusting the camera timer. “So did you.”  
  
“He leaves space in the photos, North. He stands where the sun will cast his shadow on the steps next to him, and he leaves space for it. For him and for me, North—don’t let him do it this year.”  
  
North nods, and nudges Bunny towards the steps. “Okay! One minute everybody, get together, get ready to smile!” He starts the timer and hurries up the steps, grabbing Bunny around the shoulders as he moves to stand behind Jack, Tooth, and the girls. Sandy stands on his other side, close, but not too close. There’s just about enough space between them for someone both particularly slender and especially willing to press near to Sandy to stand. North reaches across that space and pulls his friend to him, startling him into a wide, genuine smile just before the camera clicks.  
  
And if Tasha’s a little blurred—well, it’ll still certainly do for the year.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments from Tumblr:
> 
> sylphidine reblogged this from gretchensinister and added:  
> Quote: “There’s just about enough space between them for someone both particularly slender and especially willing to press near to Sandy to stand.”
> 
> :::::BAWLS:::::::
> 
> ::::BAWLS UNTIL THE END OF TIME:::::  
> …because, y’know… feels.
> 
> whentheoceanmetsky reblogged this from gretchensinister and added:  
> The only thing that makes this okay is that I know there’ll be a happy ending. I need to go read it now.
> 
> bowlingforgerbils said: Sobbing into my breakfast right now THANKS. (Sandyyyy ;_;)
> 
> xxdaimonxx said: you doubled my crying numbers this day madam! *goes crying because GAHHHH*
> 
> gretchensinister reblogged this from marypsue and added:  
> Looking forward to it, my dear.
> 
> marypsue reblogged this from gretchensinister and added:  
> You do know that I will get revenge for every single one of these daggers through my heart. Somehow. When you least expect it.


End file.
